No breaks for red-hot Winnipeg Jets in wild Western conference

The Jets celebrate a goal during their win in Detroit Tuesday night. The Jets have had plenty to celebrate lately but also have a tendency to let complacency creep into their game when they taste success.

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They’ve scraped and clawed their way back to mediocrity, the NHL’s wacky version of .500.

But 20 points in 20 games for the Winnipeg Jets, with the help of four shootout wins, means second-last place in their new division, 11th place in the conference.

The last two seasons a mundane record like that would probably have the Jets in second place in the Southeast and sniffing around the playoff line.

Maybe that’s why it seemed whenever this team reached such not-so-lofty heights it began believing unrealistic things about itself, with predictable results.

This time, there should be no putting the cart before the horse, not with the view the Jets have, a bevy of western thoroughbreds still kicking up manure into their faces. Not even with a three-game win streak tucked neatly under their belts, going into a Friday encounter with an eastern Philly.

“The last few years we always hit .500 and then we did a step back,” goalie Ondrej Pavelec said, Thursday. “We have to make a step forward. We can’t be satisfied. We would be crazy if we were going to do (that). If you look at the division, pretty much everybody’s winning around us.”

The feeling in the room is unanimous.

A .500 record? Big whup.

“It’s not very significant for me,” head coach Claude Noel said. “We’ve been on the wrong side of the (playoff) line two years in a row. And if you look at the western division it’s going to take a little bit more than .500.”

That said, Noel keeps a close eye out for the beast called complacency. It can take down even a front-runner, never mind a weaker mare lagging near the back of the pack.

A few weeks ago, the thing might have found more to feed on, here. The Flyers’ record was abysmal, making them easy to overlook, despite their glorious history.

But three straight wins of their own serves notice they’re not the same Philadelphia animal that wobbled out and threw its head coach off early this season.

Craig Berube has taken the reins and calmed it down, pointed it in the right direction, to a .500 record of its own under the new boss.

“They have good tradition and good players,” Evander Kane said. “They obviously had a rough start, but they went into Pittsburgh and beat them (Wednesday). They’re a team that had a bit of a wakeup call. It’s going to be a tough test for us.”

If you look at the standings, the Jets’ tougher test is behind them: the trail that went through Chicago, San Jose and Detroit.

Two of Winnipeg’s next three games, and five of its next eight, are against teams that had losing records at this writing.

But Olli Jokinen says the records may as well be road apples.

The veteran Finn, hitting a stride of his own with four points in his last four games, prefers to put the blinders on and just keep running, and says his teammates should do the same.

“We should have the right mindset no matter what our record is or what the other team’s record is,” Jokinen said. “You put your best foot forward every time you step on the ice. You pay attention to detail, you focus on your next shift.”

Never mind the old equestrian analogies. Jokinen prefers to modernize.

“You end up being like a machine that keeps rolling,” he said. “Shift after shift and game after game.”

Either way, it’s horsepower the Jets need if they want to play meaningful hockey right to the end of the regular season, and beyond.

Stumble now and there’s always another set of hooves ready to trample you into next-year country.

No breaks for red-hot Winnipeg Jets in wild Western conference

They’ve scraped and clawed their way back to mediocrity, the NHL’s wacky version of .500.

But 20 points in 20 games for the Winnipeg Jets, with the help of four shootout wins, means second-last place in their new division, 11th place in the conference.

The last two seasons a mundane record like that would probably have the Jets in second place in the Southeast and sniffing around the playoff line.

Maybe that’s why it seemed whenever this team reached such not-so-lofty heights it began believing unrealistic things about itself, with predictable results.

This time, there should be no putting the cart before the horse, not with the view the Jets have, a bevy of western thoroughbreds still kicking up manure into their faces. Not even with a three-game win streak tucked neatly under their belts, going into a Friday encounter with an eastern Philly.

“The last few years we always hit .500 and then we did a step back,” goalie Ondrej Pavelec said, Thursday. “We